He told a New Orleans court that BP did not implement a two-year-old safety management programme on the rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010.

It’s a classic failure of management and leadership in BP

Bob Bea

Bea, who also investigated the levee breaches in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said the company had an operating management system designed to give a rigorous and systematic approach to safety but it was implemented at only one of seven BP rigs in the Gulf.

Be a added: “It’s a classic failure of management and leadership in BP.

“Financially, BP had the resources to effectively put into place a process safety system that could have prevented the Macondo [Gulf] disaster.”